Wolfsbane
by em-ily8458
Summary: Being a teenager is hard. Being a fifth year at Hogwarts is tough. Being a werewolf is terrible. Imagine being all three. Well, Anna Lowell doesn't have to imagine being all three - it's her reality. With a reality like that, Anna's never really had time for a love life. Maybe it's time someone changed that. Reviews welcome and wanted! :-) (Current - PoA)
1. One

**Yes, I'm posting ANOTHER new fic. I'm not even going to say anything, I'm simply going to kindly ask you lovely people to leave your thoughts and opinions in the reviews and thank you in advance. Really. To those of you who review, I mean it - THANK YOU!**

**Enjoy. :-)**

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"Bloody dementors on the train! Haven't even gotten to school yet and they're already trying to kill us," grumbled 15-year-old Anna Lowell as she stepped off of the Hogwarts Express.

"It was just a freak accident," Angelina Johnson, one of her best friends, piped up. "Besides, would you rather get killed by Sirius Black or have dementors floating around?"

"Well, if I'm going to have to choose between having my soul sucked out or being killed by Sirius Black, I'm going to choose Black, to be honest, Ange," Anna replied. Seeing Angelina's eyebrows skyrocket upwards, Anna cleared her throat and explained, "Because, think about it here - getting your soul sucked out would be slow and painful and it would be bloody awful. If I'm gonna die, I want to get it over with, so if Black killed me, he'd throw a curse at me or cut my jugular or something that'd make it go fast."

"You're positively morbid, you know that?" Angelina grumbled, shaking her head as she boarded the carriage and got out of the icy rain.

"We're all going to die," Anna shrugged.

She was unphased, and leapt into the carriage behind Angelina, with her beloved kneazle, Casper, tucked beneath her robes and clutched against her chest. He wasn't a fan of the rain, to say the least.

"Who's dying?" inquired Alicia Spinnet, fellow fifth year and other best friend of Anna. Together, Anna, Angelina and Alicia were the three amigos, the three musketeers.

"No one," Angelina muttered, rolling her eyes. Changing the subject, she then asked, "So, what do you two reckon Professor Lupin will be like?"

By Professor Lupin, Angelina was referring to the new professor they'd been hearing all about on the train since the dementor incident. Apparently, this Professor Lupin was going to be their new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor (their fifth one in five years), and he'd single-handedly saved Harry Potter's life when one of the dementors supposedly tried to suck his soul out right there on the Express.

"Well, he sounds like he's got the skills to teach, at least," Alicia answered. "If what everyone's saying about him saving Harry is true, anyway."

"Yeah, at least he doesn't sound like a total wanker," Anna chimed in. "Lockhart was a complete wanker. I think he spent more time looking in a mirror than he ever did doing any of those things he's said he's done….and Quirrell, remember that idiot? I always wondered if he made that ridiculous turban out of toilet paper."

That comment garnered laughs from the other two girls, while Anna shrugged. She'd always genuinely wondered that.

"Toilet paper?" Alicia repeated, still chuckling. "Why on earth would he make a turban with that?"

"I don't know," Anna shrugged once again. "I bet he had a lot of spare time on his hands to do something pointless like that. He wasn't exactly hot to trot or partying or anything, was he?"

"I really don't understand your brain most of the time," Angelina sighed with a grin. "Does being a werewolf make you insane?"

"Oh, definitely," Anna nodded, with an endearingly manic kind of grin. "You know, the word 'lunatic' stems from the Latin word for 'moon,' because it was believed the moon made people crazy, right? So, since my entire life is governed by the moon, I must be a real nutter."

"You lost me, Fang," Alicia said, wide-eyed and confused.

Anna had earned the nickname Fang because Angelina and Alicia thought that her fangs looked particularly menacing when she transformed.

Yes, Anna Lowell was a werewolf. She couldn't help it, she'd been born that way. Her dad was terrified that she wouldn't be able to attend Hogwarts, but Professor Dumbledore had been kind enough to make accommodations for her by providing her an isolated place to transform. It was the Shrieking Shack, which she accessed via a tunnel through the Whomping Willow. Professor Dumbledore said they'd built all of it for a former student who was a werewolf as well, and that the screams heard from the Shrieking Shack were actually them in pain while transforming, though the ghostly rumours were encouraged to protect the student. She spent her first three and a half years locking herself in there, alone, while she transformed, and then missing a shit load of classes because of how ill transforming made her.

By the end of Anna's first year, Angelina and Alicia had done some detective work and deduced that she was a werewolf. At first, Anna denied it with all her heart and soul, but after Alicia and Angelina kept on her about it, she came clean. To her surprise, her friends were fine with it. They didn't hold it against her or hate her or think she was disgusting like she expected them to, but they actually wanted to help her. They saw the wounds and scars that she endured because of transforming, because she ended up hurting herself since she was locked away while in wolf form, and that's when they got the idea - Angelina and Alicia were going to find a way to be there safely while she transformed, to keep her from hurting herself. Sure, Anna had Casper her kneazle for company while she transformed, but he was far too small to prevent her from injuring herself.

For the next couple of years, Angelina and Alicia studied up on how to become Animagi, something that Professor Dumbledore subtly suggested they try. They didn't question how he knew that was exactly what they needed to do, but they did it. By the time they came back from Christmas break during their fourth year, they'd finally mastered the skill enough to accompany Anna during her transformations and stop her from hurting herself.

Anyway, the girls were now fifth years, and their carriage was dropping them off at the castle. Anna gave the thestral that pulled their carriage a thankful pet down the nose, before the three made a run for it through the rain, arriving inside of the castle soaking wet and shivering, like almost everyone else was. Each of the girls removed their wands from their cloaks, using them to dry themselves off before entering the Great Hall.

"Where the hell has McGonagall gone?" Anna inquired, referring to their Head of Gryffindor House.

She had noticed tiny Professor Flitwick standing in front of the hoard of assembled first years, standing in the hand of one of the knight statues so that they could all see him. It seemed that Flitwick was running the Sorting this year, when it was traditionally McGonagall's duty.

"I don't know, but that's strange," Angelina replied, glancing over her shoulder at Flitwick. "It's not like McGonagall to not be here."

"True, but Flitwick looks wonderfully ridiculous with that statue holding him," Anna chuckled. "He's adorable! He looks like a little doll up there, doesn't he?"

Both Angelina and Alicia shook their heads, but it was Alicia who said, "You've lost us again, Fang."

Anna shrugged, but didn't reply as they took their seats at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. Their other friends, Katie Bell, Oliver Wood, Lee Jordan and Fred and George Weasley were all already occupying their usual seats.

Anna's smile faded a bit. They were all her friends, sure, but they didn't know her secret like Alicia and Angelina did, and she had a perpetual fear that they'd all find out, and when they did, they'd hate her. That fear always made her act quieter and more reserved when around all of them, versus how zany she could be when just around Alicia and Angelina.

Fred and George were already goofing off, as they were showing off the two miniature mummy figures they brought home from Egypt, which could be made to fight each other or do the 'walk like an Egyptian' dance. For some reason, the little things were ridiculously funny, and kept everyone laughing until the Sorting began.

The Sorting went as usual, with the exception that Flitwick was the master of ceremonies rather than McGonagall. The tiny professor set the ancient hat on the equally ancient stool, it belted out another song that was painfully long in Anna's opinion, and then, in his signature squeaky voice, Flitwick called each first year up by last name, then first name, and they were Sorted. Each table clapped when a new student joined their ranks, including Anna, though she found her claps less and less enthusiastic as she became more and more hungry.

The Sorting came to an end (finally), and the whole hall erupted in cheers and claps, though Anna rolled her eyes as she clapped. She just wanted to eat, and sighed dramatically as she collapsed into her seat once again. She glanced down the table full of Gryffindors, particularly looking at the terrified new first years. While doing this, she noticed Ron Weasley, Fred and George's bottomless pit of a younger brother, was without Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. That was odd. The latter two were nowhere to be found, though Anna almost always saw them together, like a package deal.

Immediately, Anna recalled the story everyone had been murmuring about since the dementors on the train - that Harry had actually been attacked. That would explain why he was gone, but what about Granger?

"Hey, Ron, where's…." Anna began to ask.

Just as she did, the doors to the Great Hall swung open once again, and in came McGonagall, Harry, and Hermione, as if they were right on cue. McGonagall simply took her seat up at the staff table, in her reserved seat that was previously empty, right next to who Anna immediately assumed must be Professor Lupin. She hadn't noticed him up there, because honestly, she hadn't been paying much attention to anything but her stomach for a while now.

Looking at him now, Anna could understand why she'd missed him. He looked very unassuming, with somewhat shabby robes and graying hair and a plain face. He didn't stand out, especially amongst his new colleagues, like the groundskeeper giant Hagrid, or the eccentric Professor Dumbledore, or the itty-bitty Professor Flitwick. He seemed happy to be up at the staff table, by Anna's observations, and she was happy to see he wasn't wearing a turban.

Back at Anna's own Gryffindor table, she noticed Ron mutter something to Harry as he sat down, but before she herself could butt into the conversation, Professor Dumbledore rose before the school.

"Welcome!" Dumbledore greeted, extending his arms. As always, he looked eccentric, with his flashy robes, long beard and hair, half-moon spectacles and crooked nose, all of which glowed with him in the candlelight. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you become befuddled by our excellent feast…."

Pausing, Dumbledore cleared his throat, and then continued, "As you will all be aware of after the search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is presently playing host to some of the dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business."

Anna knew, almost everyone knew. The damn dementors were at Hogwarts because the infamous, insane serial killer Sirius Black was on the loose.

"They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds," Dumbledore continued. "And while they are with us, I must make it plain that nobody is to leave the school without permission. Dementors are not fooled by tricks or disguises - or even Invisibility Cloaks. It is not in the nature of a dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I therefore warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the prefects, and our new Head Boy and Girl, to make sure that no student runs afoul of the dementors."

Anna noticed Percy Weasley, Fred and George's painfully obnoxious older brother, puff out his chest to make his Head Boy badge more noticeable. Anna did the same thing just to mock him for her own pleasure, though Fred and George saw her from the corners of their eyes and couldn't help but to snigger, causing Percy to glare down at all of them.

"On a happier note," Dumbledore said, catching their attentions again. "I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year."

"Two?" Angelina whispered. "I don't see anyone new but Lupin…."

They all followed her glance up at the staff table, and saw that Angelina was right.

"First, Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

Lupin gave a slight wave as a rather scattered kind of applause rose in the hall. The Gryffindor table was undeniably the most enthusiastic, as the story about Harry and the dementors on the train had impressed them all. Across the way, Anna saw the Slytherins whispering and sniggering, and shook her head. She wasn't a fan of the Slytherins.

"Look at Snape!" someone whispered somewhere near Anna.

Craning her neck, Anna focused her eyeballs up towards Snape's end of the staff table. The expression he wore could was one that she could only sum up in two words: pure hatred. It was no secret that Snape had been after the DADA job for years now, but never ever had she seen him react to the person who actually got the job in such a nasty way.

She groaned and turned back towards the table, where she and Fred locked eyes and exchanged slightly confused shrugs at Snape's reaction. The rest of what little applause there was died down, just in time for Dumbledore to continue talking.

"As to our second new appointment," Dumbledore picked up. "Well, I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs. However, I am delighted to say that his place will be filled by none other than Rubeus Hagrid, who was agreed to take on this teaching job in addition to his gamekeeping duties."

"Wicked," Anna grinned.

From what she knew of Hagrid, she liked him, and she knew he had a penchant for interesting and dangerous creatures, which was sure to make one of her favorite classes a whole hell of a lot more interesting.

Standing up there to accept the applause, Hagrid looked a bit like a fool. Anna saw that he was crying, dabbing his enormous eyes with the tablecloth. It was a pretty funny sight, almost as funny as the statue holding Professor Flitwick.

"Well, I think that's everything of importance," said Dumbledore. "Let the feast begin!"

As soon as Dumbledore had finished speaking, golden plates and goblets appeared all over each and every table, and the feast had begun. Anna couldn't help diving into things and loading her plate up with anything and everything she could get her hands on. Angelina jabbed her in the ribs with her elbow.

"What's that for?" Anna inquired, though her voice was very muffled through her mouthful of food.

"You look like an animal!" Angelina scolded.

With a wink, Anna whispered cheekily, "Well, technically…."

"Don't worry, you look completely civilized compared to that one," George piped up, gesturing towards his younger brother with his eyes.

It was true, Ron Weasley was making Anna look like a courtly lady over there. They chuckled.

"What?" Ron asked through his mouthful of food, looking up to the older students.

"Oh, nothing," George shrugged.

Seeing that Angelina gave Anna another glare, Fred said, "Ange, let her eat, won't you? She is a growing girl, after all."

He accentuated the word growing by making an extremely obvious gesture to her breasts, which earned laughter from the boys and eye rolling from the girls. Anna kicked him hard in the shin beneath the table.

"Merlin, you're stronger than you look," Fred commented, lowering himself to rub his shin below the table.

"It's the tit power," she replied. Angelina groaned, Alicia laughed.

"They're not bad looking, y'know," Lee said. "I mean, you're no Angelina, but you're not bad."

"You're lucky I can't reach you over there," Anna mumbled, shaking her head.

"Good thing I can," Angelina grunted.

She took the opportunity to kick Lee in the shin, probably even harder than Anna had kicked Fred, which made her laugh.

From there, the conversation glazed over the topic of Sirius Black again, then went back to the dementors on the train, though nobody dared to ask Harry about his experience, because he didn't exactly look like he was in the mood to talk. Then, of course, everyone had to talk about Quidditch, because they were all on the Quidditch team. This drove Anna crazy, because she wished she could play as well, but, due to her condition, it wouldn't really be practical for her to join. She'd miss weeks of practices throughout the season, so she decided to be fair to everyone else, she just wouldn't try out at all.

The feast ended, and all the food and drink magically disappeared from the table, and Anna rubbed her full belly with a happy grin. She didn't know if it was just her, or if it was because she was a werewolf, but she had a hell of an appetite.

Anna and gang then joined the gaggle of Gryffindors exiting the Great Hall and going up the marble staircase. She felt tired, something she often felt, and another thing she assumed was a symptom of her lycanthropy. She was so tired that she leaned on Alicia for support, and couldn't help but to utter a few enormous yawns. Anyone but Anna would've been embarrassed to yawn like that in public, but she'd learned not to care in her fifteen years.

"You need to get to bed," Alicia said. Everyone had come to a standstill in front of the Fat Lady's portrait, because no one knew the new password yet. "I can't have you falling asleep on me, you drool too much."

"Some people think its cute," Anna said in response, wiping her face as she lifted it from Alicia's shoulder. Alicia was right, she had been starting to drool.

"Like who?" Alicia asked.

"I don't know, but I'm sure some people do," Anna shrugged.

In reality, she had no idea. No one had ever called her cute but her dad. Of course, Alicia and Angelina called her cute in a friendship sort of way, but no one else ever had. And her dad didn't really count, did he?

"Coming through, coming through!" came the voice of obnoxious Head Boy Percy Weasley. He shoved his way to the front, announcing, "The new password is 'Fortuna Major'!"

As soon as he uttered the words, the Fat Lady's frame swung open, revealing the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. Everyone clambered inside, and Anna let out a happy sigh being back in the place she loved. Sure, she hated some of the classes she had to take, but when it came down to it, she loved Hogwarts. She was happy here. She had friends here, and she was free here. Even when she transformed, she could go into the Forbidden Forest now (okay, she really wasn't _supposed_ to, but she could, and she did), which was loads better than having to be locked in the basement back home. She understood why she had to be locked up at home, but that didn't mean she liked it.

She did like the Gryffindor common room, however. She loved it because it felt like home. The warm fire, the view of the grounds from the window, the cozy couches and armchairs, and all the fun she'd had in here really made it a special place for her. As soon as she walked in, she spotted Casper, her black and orange mess of a kneazle, curled up by the fire on his favorite cushion. He was purring happily, and continued to do so as she scooped him up into her arms and smacked a big kiss onto his fat, fluffy head.

"I don't know how the hell you could love such an ugly thing," commented Lee.

It was a well known fact that Casper was rather ugly. His face was kind of squished, his right ear was nearly completely chewed off, and his left eye was missing, all because he'd been quite scrappy in his younger days.

"I wouldn't talk about being ugly if I were you," Anna retorted, rocking Casper in her arms like he was a human baby.

"He's not ugly, he's just tough looking," George piped up in her defense.

"Yeah, he's just got some battle scars," added Fred, giving Casper a scratch behind his less damaged ear.

The twins liked Casper because he had a mischievous side to him, like they did. He enjoyed running with an end of yarn in his mouth, undoing people's knitting from the other end, as they became more and more bewildered as to why their project wouldn't grow. He also liked casually dropping bugs in girls' hair as he passed by, stealing shoe laces to chew on, and appearing out of nowhere to give students a good scared. He'd done that so many times to the Slytherins now that most of them were actually mildly scared of him.

"Battle scars or not, he's still ugly," Lee shrugged.

"You just don't like him because he takes your shoelaces," Anna replied with a shrug of her own. "And the more you call him ugly, the more he'll do it."

Casper mewed in her arms, as if he were agreeing with her. Well, in fact, he was agreeing with her, because she was pretty good at understanding him. That was another symptom of lycanthropy, and the only one she didn't mind.

"Well, Ugly Cat and I are headed to bed," Anna sighed, turning towards the girls' dormitory. "Night."

She retreated up the stairs, and immediately collapsed into the bed that had been hers for years now, the one in the corner with all the cobwebs that freaked Alicia and Angelina out. With a couple flicks of her wand, she hung up all her posters that she liked to have up, and then curled up under all the warm covers with Casper snuggled up beside her, purring. She reached into the drawer in her nightstand, and pulled out the one thing she had to look at, even if she hated it - her lunar calendar.

She only had a bit of time until the next full moon.

With another sigh, she rolled onto her back, and allowed herself to fall asleep.


	2. Two

**Back with another chapter. I have to say I'm having fun with this one so far. Are you guys enjoying it? If you are, or even if you aren't, please don't be afraid to let me know down in the reviews! I do love hearing from you, honestly. **

**That's it from me for now. Enjoy. :-)**

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Anna woke up the next morning, but only after being slapped awake by Alicia.

"What the hell was that for?" Anna grumbled, rolling around while holding her hands over her face. "Merlin…."

"You overslept," Alicia informed her. She was talking like she hadn't just slapped her in the face. "Slept through the most important meal of the day, which, coincidentally, is your favorite meal of the day, at that."

"I missed breakfast?" Anna said, sitting up faster than the twitch of a snitch's wing. Balling her fists in a funny-angry sort of way, she exclaimed, "Damnit!"

"Not to worry, Fang, I've got your back," Angelina winked. In her hand, wrapped in napkins, were two pieces of toast with eggs and bacon lodged in between.

"Thank Merlin for you, Socks," Anna sighed gratefully.

Angelina's nickname was Socks because her Animagus took the form of a fox, which gave her distinctive sock-like marks around her feet and legs. Alicia Animagus took the form of a bear, so she was called Teddy, because, y'know, of teddy bears.

"Thank Merlin later, because we've got to go to History of Magic," Angelina said, though her tone and expression were both the complete opposite of enthusiastic.

"You really woke me up for that stupid class?" Anna groaned. She was halfway through wiggling into her robes, and stopped while she spoke, giving Angelina an exasperated look. "I don't care if I miss that! Binns wouldn't care if I missed that!"

"Yeah, but you miss enough classes as it is," Angelina reasoned. "You should go to the ones you can."

"You're a good mum, you know that?" Anna replied.

She wasn't kidding either. She was 100% serious. Her mum died after giving birth to her, so she never really had a real mum. She had a dad, but her dad quite literally gave her whatever she wanted within reason. So, having a responsible friend who still had a sense of humor like Angelina was something Anna was really grateful for.

"I hate it when you call me mum," Angelina grumbled. It was true, she did. "Just hurry up get dressed."

"One last thing," Anna mumbled.

She reached over her nightstand, and grabbed the necklace that she always wore and slipped it over her head, tucking it into the shirt beneath her robes. It was something, well, the only thing she really had left from her mum.

It wasn't exactly a surprise that Anna was to be born a werewolf, and while her mum was pregnant, she heard an old wives' tale that necklaces made of silver, quartz and moonstone helped with the symptoms of lycanthropy. Really, it was a story the witch who made them told people to sell more jewelry. Either way, Anna wore it. She didn't know if it was just comforting because it represented her mother, and therefore she imagined it worked, but sometimes she swore the scars she gave herself around the skin the necklace healed faster than others on her body.

Once the necklace was on, her textbook was in hand, and Casper had been kissed goodbye, Anna was finally ready to head to class.

Just as expected, History of Magic was boring. It wasn't that Anna found the idea of history boring. She actually thought history was fascinating, it was just that Professor Binns had developed a particular talent for making it boring. He was even starting out their first lesson of fifth year, on the Giant Wars, something which sounded wickedly amazing, more dry than burnt toast. She would've fallen asleep if it wasn't for Fred pelting her in the back of the head with notes telling her that her hair looked like a "magnificent bird's nest," among other insulting compliments. She ignored him for the most part. Boys were stupid like that.

Anna struggled to keep her eyes awake on the way to Potions, their next class. It was her least favorite class. She was indifferent to the subject itself, but had developed a profound hatred for the professor, who happened to be Snape. He was head of Slytherin, and showed undeniable favoritism to them. Like them, he hated the Gryffindors, and showed it as well. He seemed to have a particular dislike towards Anna, or at least she thought he did. She supposed he hated her because she missed so many classes in which they had to brew potions for evaluation, and had to stay late at night with Snape to make them up. Either way, his hate towards her only strengthened her hatred towards him.

Upon entering the dungeon classroom where Potions was held, Anna assumed her regular seat towards the back of the room, where she was stuck sitting with Fred, It was the seat she'd had since her first class ever, during her first year. Alicia and Angelina had paired off, and since Fred and George had evidently gotten into a row that day, they refused to sit with each other, which left Fred and Anna stuck together. Little did they know that those seats would become assigned, and that they'd spend the rest of their Hogwarts years getting on each other's nerves during Potions. She liked Fred enough and all, but he got so distracting and annoying and got her into enough trouble with Snape, that at times, she was glad her lycanthropy exhaustion got her out of class. She didn't exactly miss Snape either.

As soon as Snape entered the room, the door shutting abruptly behind him, everyone shut up. Lee, George, and Fred ceased tossing their enchanted little paper airplane around, the Hufflepuff girls' chattering ceased, the Ravenclaws near the front perfected their posture and the Slytherins gave their slightest attention.

"Before we begin today's lesson," Snape began, his long robes sweeping through the air behind him as he took position behind his desk. "I think it is appropriate to remind you that next June you will be sitting an important examination, during which you will prove how much you have learned about the composition and use of magical potions. Moronic though some of this class undoubtedly are, I expect you to scrape an 'Acceptable' in your O.W.L., or suffer my….displeasure."

Anna felt Snape stare her down, and like hell, she gave him a stare right back.

"After this year, of course, many of you will cease studying with me," Snape went on. "I will only take the very best into my N.E.W.T. Potions class, which means some of us will certainly be saying good-bye."

Snape's eyes went over nearly everyone in the room. He had a stupid kind of smile that made Anna wonder why he ever decided to become a teacher in the first place.

"But, we have another year to go before that happy moment of farewell, so whether you are intending to attempt N.E.W.T. or not, I advise you all to concentrate your efforts upon maintaining the high-pass level I have come to expect from my O.W.L. students."

"Today we will be mixing a potion that often comes up at Ordinary Wizarding Level: the Draught of Peace, a potion to calm anxiety and soothe agitation. Be warned: if you are too heavy-handed with the ingredients, you will put the drinker into a heavy and sometimes irreversible sleep, so you will need to pay close attention to what you are doing," Snape paused. He flicked his wand, and the chalk began to write on the blackboard. "The ingredients and method are on the board. You will find everything you need in the cupboard. You have an hour and a half. Begin."

It didn't take long for Anna to realize that Snape had assigned them what was probably the hardest potion he could've assigned them. Everything had to be added at a precise time and in a precise order, stirred a certain way a certain number of times, and so on and so forth. For probably the first half of class, she was so frustrated with the damn potion she started tugging on her hair.

"Aw, don't pull out your rat's nest over what I said," Fred joked next to her. He seemed to not give a damn at all, as he kept chucking random things into his cauldron, despite Snape's glare.

Anna groaned, and kicked him beneath the table, causing their cauldrons to clang on top.

"Is there an issue with your potions, Mr. Weasley and Miss Lowell?" Snape inquired, lip curled, from where he stood over Cedric Diggory's cauldron.

"Not at all, Professor," Anna said.

"Then I suppose I should not hear another noise from you two," Snape replied. His eyes narrowed, and he turned away, however, he turned back quickly and added, "But, Miss Lowell, I will need to see you after class to have a….discussion with you."

Snape turned, this time for good, to chastise the Hufflepuff girl who sat across from Cedric. Anna turned to give Fred a good glare, since she assumed he was the one who'd gotten her in trouble. He didn't care. In fact, he seemed to think it was funny, as he chuckled when he went back to chucking ingredients into his cauldron.

Anna spent the rest of the class feeling both very angry and very anxious about having to spend even more time with Snape. She hated the guy enough and spent more than enough time with him already. She could only imagine what kind of a party he was planning on having with her after class.

And, of course, class came to an end, and everyone poured whatever they'd ended up brewing into a vial for Snape to inspect and grade. While the textbook said that the potion would turn a silvery kind of color and produce a similarly colored vapor when brewed correctly, no one's seemed to fit that description, from what Anna could see at least. Hers sure didn't look like that. It looked more like thin yogurt with some sort of vapor coming out of it.

She slipped it into the rack upon Snape's desk, and then slipped between Alicia and Lee, hoping she could sneak out of the classroom. Unfortunately, it didn't work out as she wanted it to.

"Miss Lowell, I do recall asking you to stay behind," Snape said, catching her as she just stepped a foot out of the room.

She grumbled, but she obliged, and stepped back inside, watching her friends go. They were chuckling, but deep down, she knew they felt at least a touch of sympathy for her.

"Miss Lowell, Professor Dumbledore has brewing a very….particular potion over the summer," Snape prefaced. "With recent advances in medicinal potions, there has been one developed in the past year that is designed to help those of….your kind."

By 'your kind,' Snape meant werewolf. He knew what she was - the whole staff did, but not the students. The staff had to know because of all the classes she missed and in case of some kind of emergency situation. The students were mostly forbidden from knowing because if word got out to some of their parents, Hogwarts would undoubtedly have a riot on their hands.

"You mean….Wolfsbane Potion….?" Anna questioned, interest peaking.

"You've heard of it, I see," Snape said, sorting through a few of his personal potion filled vials.

She nodded. She had. Her dad told her about it around Christmas last year, and how it relieved symptoms of lycanthropy. She didn't know which symptoms, but she knew it helped. She also knew that it was far too difficult for her dad to brew at her at home, and also far too expensive for him to buy for her, so she had to go without.

"Yeah, it helps with….my kind," Anna uttered, stumbling with a sort of embarrassment.

"It doesn't help, it allows a werewolf to retain their human mind while in their transformed state," Snape explained, sounding a bit agitated. "Anyhow, I had asked you to stay behind to ask if you were interested in taking this potion that Professor Dumbledore has offered to you as well."

"As well as what?" Anna questioned.

"As well as the other of someone your kind in Hogwarts," Snape said, as he seemed to grow even more agitated. His palms hit the top of his desk so hard that Anna jumped back a bit, eyes widening. "And you are not to ask me who that someone is, because I was not supposed to have even mentioned it to you. You will forget I said anything at all about this, and you are certainly not to tell anyone else what you have heard here. You will see me once a day during the week of your transformation for your dose of Wolfsbane Potion. That is all, Miss Lowell, now kindly get out of my classroom."

Anna didn't question Snape, as he nearly threw her out of the room, though her head was swirling with thoughts and questions and a strange kind of excitement with knowing that she wasn't alone in her lycanthropy at Hogwarts.

* * *

It wasn't that much of a surprise that Anna disobeyed Snape's orders to not tell anyone. As soon as she got a moment alone with Alicia and Angelina, which came when all three of them had retreated to their dorms for the night. She spilled all the beans to them as soon as the door to their room was locked, and they'd been discussing the matter ever since.

"It's got to be a first year," Angelina said. She was sitting on her bed with Anna sitting on the floor at her feet, brushing through Anna's tangled mess of flaxen hair for her. "You would've known if it was someone else, we all would've known, we're in the forest too much during the full moon to not know if there was another werewolf in school."

"Well, not necessarily," Alicia replied. She was laying in her bed, flipping through the latest edition of her favorite Quidditch magazine. "The Forbidden Forest is huge, we easily could've missed them."

"No, Socks is right, we would've known," Anna confirmed. In her lap, Casper paced in circles, to make an extra comfortable nest for himself out of Anna's flannel pajama pants. "Or, at least, I would've known before this. Madame Pomfrey always takes me out to the Shrieking Shack, I'm sure she would've taken the other person out too, and that's never happened. It's got to be a first year. Poor thing….is it weird that I really want to meet them?"

"No," Angelina said, while starting to French braid Anna's damp hair for the night. "I mean….you've never actually met another werewolf before, have you?"

"No," Anna said. She started to shake her head, but Angelina wouldn't allow her, as it would mess up the braiding process. She grumbled. "Well, obviously, I know that others exist, but I've never known one. I think….I don't know, it'd be kind of comforting? I don't know if that's the right word, but I guess that's how I feel. And if they're a first year, maybe I could….I don't know, help them out in a sort of way?"

"No, I get what you mean," Alicia chimed in. "It makes sense why you'd want to meet whoever it is."

"You're all done," Angelina sighed, changing the subject, as she meant Anna's hair was all done.

"Thanks, Ange," Anna yawned. She ran a hand over the slick braid through the back of her head, while rising to her feet with Casper in tow. "I'm heading to bed now."  
"Me too," Alicia echoed with a yawn, tossing her Quidditch magazine to the floor.

"Me three," Angelina concluded.

Once all of the three girls and the kneazle were cozily tucked into their beds, Anna did as she always did - she pulled out her lunar calendar.

"When's the next one, Fang?" asked Alicia, as if she could see Anna through the darkness.

"Too soon," Anna groaned.

It wasn't the answer Alicia had wanted, but it was the one Anna always had.


	3. Three

**So...back with another chapter. Yeah. So I'd really like opinions on this, as it's kind of different from my other fics, I guess. I just want to know if you guys are liking it or not, if it's worth continuing to post, y'know? So reviews with your opinions would be greatly appreciated, for real. Thanks in advance :-)**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

The next morning marked the day of their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class with the new Professor Lupin. It was the usual thing to happen, getting a new DADA professor at the beginning of each school year, but everyone was always curious to see what kind of professor they'd end up getting for that year. They'd had some real wankers in the past, in Anna's opinion, so she'd set very low standards for Lupin.

With her fellow fifth years, Anna shuffled into the old DADA classroom, yawning her head off as she did so. She took her seat with Alicia, and like everyone else, prepared for class by taking out some spare parchment, a quill, ink, and her textbook, and prepared herself to either be bored or perpetually annoyed by Professor Lupin. As was typical for her, she nearly fell asleep amidst the pre-class chaos that usually happened when Fred and George were in class.

Alicia kicked her slightly below the table, so she was awake just in time to see Professor Lupin coming into the room, from his adjoined office. He still looked rather shabby, with prominent patches on the elbows of his sleeves and a ratty briefcase in tow, but he looked healthier, somehow. Anna supposed the meals at Hogwarts had done him well.

"Good morning," Professor Lupin greeted. The class echoed him, and watched with curiosity as he set his briefcase down on his desk, popped it open, and simply extracted his wand. "You can all put your books in your bag, you won't need them. If you'd kindly get your wands ready and follow me, now….today's lesson will be a practical one."

Alicia and Anna obeyed, as did everyone else, though there was a large exchange of curious glances and shrugs throughout the room.

"What do you reckon he's got planned to do?" Angelina whispered, as they clambered down the hall with the rest of the class after Lupin.

"No idea," Anna shrugged. "But no note taking or lectures? I'm already liking it."

"Maybe he'll show us how to fight dementors," George suggested. "Like he did on the train, y'know?"

"Imagine that, fighting off the dementors!" Fred exclaimed, throwing himself in a faux-action pose, while jabbing his wand, like he was actually fighting off dementors.

In the process, he nearly jabbed Anna's eye out.

"Watch the eyes, Weasley!" Anna scolded, slapping him on the shoulder once she'd recovered from flinching.

"You won't be slapping me when I'm saving you from dementors," Fred joked with a wink. "Or, maybe you will. I'm not sure what you're into."

She flashed him a very rude hand gesture, but refrained from verbally responding, as the class came to a halt at the end of a deserted corridor. They shuffled through the only door in there, and came into the staffroom, most of which had been cleared out. Professor Flitwick was enjoying a cup of tea and reading the Prophet, while Professor Sinistra corrected homework across the table from him. Seeing the class enter, Flitwick flicked his wand, and a wall rose up out of the floor, separating himself and Professor Sinistra from the fifth year class.

Anna took a moment to look around. She'd never been in the staffroom before, even if she'd been in plenty of other places in the castle that she was sure most students had never been. The room was mostly filled with mismatched armchairs, which had been pushed to the sides of the room, clearing most of it out for the class. At the end of the room, there was a dusty old wardrobe that Professor Lupin took post next to.

The class assembled before Lupin. He leaned on the wardrobe a bit, causing it to start to wobble and wiggle as if it were alive. A couple of the Ravenclaw girls in the back squealed, startled.

"Nothing to worry about," Professor Lupin said calmly, seeing and hearing the girls' response. "There's boggart in there."

Some people in the room looked a bit freaked out, to say the least. Anna wasn't really phased. After hearing about the kinds of things her dad faced as an Auror, a stupid little boggart didn't scare her.

"As I'm sure most of you know by now, boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces," Lupin continued. "Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks - I've even met one that had lodged itself in a grandfather clock. This one moved in yesterday afternoon, and I asked the headmaster if the staff would leave it for my older students to have a slight review, and so that I could teach with it to my younger students….so, to begin this review, we have to ask ourselves - what is a boggart?"

Roger Davies raised his hand. He was the captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team and Anna found him incredibly pretentious. Professor Lupin gestured towards him, allowed him to answer.

"A boggart is an amortal non-being with the ability to shape shift," Roger explained, in his typical pretentious fashion. Anna faked a gag towards Alicia, who laughed. "They use this ability to transform into whatever they think will scare us the most. However, no one knows what a boggart looks like when they are alone."

"Perfectly put," Lupin nodded with approval. "Now, how does one deal with a boggart?"

Roger put his hand up again. He looked as if he might explode if he didn't get called on, so Lupin called on him.

"The best way to deal with boggarts is in pairs, or groups," he said. "They'll get confused, trying to transform into each person's fear, and usually become some messy combination of all the fears that doesn't look scary at all. And, of course, there is the boggart-repelling spell, _Riddikulus_."

"I couldn't have said it better myself, Mr. Davies," Lupin approved once again. "But, to add on to that bit of information, I have to say that though the boggart-repelling charm is simple, it requires a bit of mind power. Can anyone tell me what you must do with your mind to make the charm actually work?"

This time, even Roger looked stumped. Everyone did. Anna crossed her arms and rolled her eyes and sighed. She knew, her dad had told her plenty of funny boggart stories in her life.

"You need to force to it to take a form that you think is funny," Anna piped up from where she stood in the back of the room.

"Could you repeat that?" Lupin requested.

He'd heard her, but he hadn't been able to make out her exact words. She was in the back of the room and she wasn't speaking as loudly as she should've been.

Clearing her throat, Anna repeated, "You need to force it to take a form that you think is funny. Like….if you're biggest fear is, I don't know, a dementor, and the boggart takes the form of a dementor, then you need to imagine it doing something ridiculous….like wearing a hula skirt and a coconut bra and waltzing to disco music while you say the charm."

Her comment elicited laughter from most of her classmates, as they imagined a dementor waltzing in a hula outfit to disco music. A faint smile came across her face - she wasn't used to so many people laughing at her because she was funny. That kind of thing never happened to her, only Fred and George, really. She'd only ever been laughed at a handful of times, and it was never because she was funny, it was usually because she tripped or spilled her potion all down her robes or something stupid like that. If anyone ever laughed at her because she was funny, it was usually just Alicia, and on a good day, maybe Angelina.

"Exactly right," Lupin nodded. He looked a bit more impressed - or maybe simply more amused - with Anna's answer than he did with Roger's answer, something that clearly wasn't sitting well with the Ravenclaw boy. "An excellent, example, thank you."

"Merlin, I didn't know that you were such a _dork_," Fred sniggered under his breath. "You'll be giving Davies and the Ravenclaws a run for their money pretty soon, Lowell."

Anna only rolled her eyes.

"Well, I suppose now that we've refreshed ourselves, we should begin," Professor Lupin said. "Would anyone like to volunteer to face the boggart?"

No one volunteered, so after a moment, Lupin said, "Then we'll do it in order, if no one's going to go first….get yourselves into a line, please."

They obeyed, organizing themselves into a neat line. Anna was at the very end, where'd she'd strategically placed herself. Unfortunately, she was behind Warrington, one of the beefy Slytherins who had a problem with B.O. Still, she hoped that being at the very end of the line meant that class would end before it was her turn to go up and face the boggart. She knew her biggest fear, and she knew that revealing it would also reveal her lycanthropy to anyone with the sense to interpret it.

Cedric Diggory, a Hufflepuff and the best looking boy at Hogwarts by many girls' standards, was the first to face the boggart.

"Now, Cedric, what do you think your boggart will take the form of?" Lupin inquired, as Cedric readied his wand. "What frightens you most in the world?"

"Well….," Cedric drawled, thinking. "I really hate snakes."

"A snake, alright," Lupin continued. "And what are you going to think of to make that funny?"

"I think I like Anna's idea, if she doesn't mind," he laughed, looking back at her for approval.

"It's all yours," Anna dismissed with a grin. "Go for it."

"Good, good," Lupin nodded. He drew his wand, and pointed it at the doors of the wardrobe. "Now, are you ready?"

"Ready as ever, sir," Cedric replied.

With a flick of the wrist, Lupin caused the doors of the wardrobe to fly open, releasing the boggart, which had took the form of a basilisk-like giant snake. Cedric trembled at first, but after some encouraging from Lupin, he burst, "_Riddikulus_!"

Immediately, the snake boggart looked baffled, as it suddenly sprouted a hula outfit and began waltzing through the room. The class erupted in laughter at the sight, and after Lupin praised Cedric for his good work, he sent the boggart back into the wardrobe, ready for the next student.

That's how the class went. The boggart took the form of an enormous spider for Angelina, and she made it slip across the room on a banana peel. For Alicia, the boggart showed herself falling off her broom in her Quidditch uniform in a quite nasty downward spiral, but with some quick thinking, Alicia made herself fall into a giant plate of jello for a soft landing. When it was Lee's turn, the boggart took the form of a dementor, and he made it turn into a kind of clumsy clown. The boggart turned into a dead Fred for George, and for Fred, and dead George. They both made the boggart impersonate their twin doing a ridiculous sort of ballet dance.

Fred's, however, was just a bit different. In the middle of boggart George's ballet routine, the boggart made a terrible cracking noise, and transformed into….well, it transformed into….Anna. Everyone's head whipped around to stare at her, and she felt her cheeks burning. She didn't know what was happening, she couldn't imagine that she actually scared Fred. Everyone staring at her distracted her from actually seeing what Fred made her do, and before she knew it, Warrington was done with his boggart, and Lupin was asking her to the front.

She was still shaky and nervous, with everyone's eyes on her. The room felt painfully silent. She was more than thankful when Lupin broke that silence.

"What is it that you fear the most, Anna?" Lupin asked her.

"Seeing myself in the mirror in the morning," she lied. She was both trying to cover for herself and diffuse the tension.

Only Lupin looked even remotely amused, as he responded, "Well, I'm sure you'll find a way to make that amusing. Ready?"

"Yes, sir," she nodded, holding her wand up.

Once again, Lupin made the doors open. The same thing she expected came out of the wardrobe - a full moon. She went into action quickly, thinking that if she did it fast enough no one would see or realize what it was. She nearly shouted the spell at the boggart, and caused it to turn into a bouncy ball, bouncing off all of the hard surfaces in the room. Nobody really laughed. The class had come to an end anyway, and almost everyone was shuffling out, whispering and looking back at her.

Alicia and Angelina were waiting for her by the door, both whispering, looking back at her, and looking a bit concerned. Fred and George had already disappeared, which made Anna angry, because she wanted to ask what the hell she'd ever done to Fred to make him scared of her.

Anna sighed.

She'd just begun to head towards Angelina and Alicia when she was interrupted by Professor Lupin.

"Anna," he called. "Would you mind staying for a moment for a quick chat? Alicia, Angelina, you two are dismissed, and free to go."

Alicia and Angelina exchanged glances, and then looked towards Anna, who gave them a slight nod, allowing them to go. They did, but they treaded lightly as they did so.

Anna turned back to Lupin, and gulped. She didn't want to discuss anything that had happened with Lupin. She had a feeling it was about either her dementor or Fred's looking like her. Either one would be just as bad, in her opinion. If it was about her boggart, he'd ask her about being a werewolf. He was the only faculty member that didn't know, after all, and she really didn't feel comfortable explaining that to a complete stranger. If he wanted to talk about Fred's, he'd probably accuse her of being some sort of abusive bully and report her to Dumbledore.

"No disrespect, Professor Lupin, but I'd really rather not discuss the boggart's forms anymore," Anna said lowly.

"I did not want to talk to you to make you any more uncomfortable than I'm sure you already are," Lupin told her. "I just wanted to let you know that the form your boggart took is far more common than you probably expect. It is probably the most common form a boggart takes when facing with a person infected with lycanthropy, Anna, and it is nothing to be ashamed of. I'm sure most of your classmates weren't even trying to interpret your boggart after seeing Fred's anyhow."

She barely listened to the last part of his speech, she was fixated on the fact that he seemed to know the fact that she indeed was infected with lycanthropy.

"You mean….you know?" Anna asked, a bit dumbfounded. "Did Professor Dumbledore tell you?"

"He did mention it, yes," Lupin nodded. "And just so you know, I hold no prejudices. Dumbledore did tell me that you do seem to cope rather well with your condition….but, seeing as you fear it, I do think I have a book that might be helpful for you….if you'd just come to my office for a moment, I could give it to you to borrow."

"Yeah, thank you," Anna replied.

She was still dumbfounded and a bit astonished at Professor Lupin's extreme kindness, and didn't really know what else to say. She couldn't believe it. She'd never had a teacher this kind, and even when they had discussed werewolves in class, they made them out to be complete monsters. Sure, some were complete monsters, like Fenrir Greyback, who'd infected her and her mum, but the majority of werewolves were just people with a disease. That's why she never spoke about it to anyone, and why only Alicia and Angelina knew. Not everyone was as kind as Professor Lupin was proving to be.

She was silent as she followed Lupin all the way back to the office in the back of his usual classroom. In there, he had his desk, which was covered in books and papers, and plenty of bookcases as well, and a large, sealed tank with a group of creatures inside that Anna recognized as kappas. She'd seen them before in pictures in her textbooks, but never before in real life.

"Wow, real kappas?" Anna inquired, peering at the tank from where she stood in the center of the room.

"Yes, fresh from Japan," Professor Lupin nodded. "Go ahead, take a look - I've got to search for that book, after all…."

Professor Lupin started digging through his trunk, while Anna approached the kappa tank. They all swam right up to the glass to stare at her, attempting to sniff and grab her through the glass. Up close, they were really ugly. They looked like scaly, deformed monkeys, kind of. Maybe there was a little turtle in there too, but they were ugly as hell.

"Here you go," came Lupin's voice.

Anna rose from kneeling in front of the kappa tank, and accepted the dusty, slightly tattered book Lupin handed her. It was called _An Unbiased Guide for Young People with Lycanthropy. _It actually looked rather intriguing to Anna, as she'd never seen anything like it in her life.

"Wow, thank you, sir," Anna said, with the stupidest kind of grin on her face. "Where'd you get this?"

"Oh, not a problem," Lupin shrugged off. "I bought it a while ago, while studying lycanthropy. Let me know what you think of it, won't you?"

"Of course," Anna agreed. "Thanks again, sir."

"Not a problem at all, Anna."

Outside of Professor Lupin's classroom, Alicia and Angelina were waiting for Anna. They were still looking rather worried, and seemed to be baffled by Anna's happiness as she approached them.

"You're….happy….?" Angelina questioned, confused, as she raised an eyebrow. "After all that….you're….smiling….?"

"Yes," Anna responded with a happy kind of nod. She glanced down the hall, and saw a laughing group of younger Hufflepuffs headed their way. She clutched the book tight against her chest, to conceal the cover. "I can't tell you here, though, c'mon."

Anna's two best friends got the hint, and the three hurried back to Gryffindor Tower, where they could get some privacy in their dorm. When they arrived, Anna showed them the book Professor Lupin had given her and told them everything that had happened. They were clearly impressed by the new teacher's kindness, and were happy that Anna was happy to have a supportive teacher behind her.

Supper rolled around before the girls knew it. Alicia and Angelina went, though Anna opted out, because she still wasn't ready to face everyone, even if Professor Lupin had made her feel better about what had happened in class. Instead, she stayed behind in her dorm room, deciding to read the book Professor Lupin had given her.

As soon as she opened the cover, she made a rather puzzling discovery. Inside of the front cover, in blue ink, was a note:

_Dearest Remus,_

_Hope this helps. Just remember that we love you no matter what. _

_Love, Mum &amp; Dad. Christmas 1970. _

So Professor Lupin hadn't told the truth when he said he bought the book. He'd gotten it from Christmas from his parents, and probably when he was a child or a teen, if Anna's estimations about his age were correct. And the note itself, well, it made Anna think….it sounded like….it couldn't be though, could it?

Could Professor Lupin be a werewolf as well?


End file.
